Sure, volunteers at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center get some perks -- pharmacy discounts, leadership-building and scholarship opportunities for college students and career exploration for high school students.

But that’s not what keeps bringing them back, or for that matter, what brought them in the first place.

It’s the simple desire to give back, and that the gratitude of patients far outweighs any benefit. National Volunteer Week, which is this week, promotes ways to improve the community.

Lisa Golden, volunteer services manager for Sharp Chula Vista, said that while uniforms and monikers for hospital volunteers may have changed over time, their role remains to make a patient’s stay more pleasant.

“Volunteers add a personal touch to the hospital,” she said. “They help define who Sharp Chula Vista is in the community.”

Providing volunteer and fundraising services to the hospital has been the mission of the near 400-member Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center Auxiliary for 50 years.

Comprising mostly seniors, the auxiliary contributed about 50,000 service hours last year.

Volunteers range in age from 16 into their 90s with positions that include greeting and escorting patients and visitors, providing clerical support and running errands.

With more than 100,000 patient visits each year, Golden said the medical center can never have enough volunteers.

Nannine “Nan” Stufkosky, 85, has volunteered for about 25 years. With numerous decorative pins coating her hospital lanyard, her flair nearly matches her gregarious personality.

Although her job description includes general responsibilities, she doesn’t let the day-to-day duties confine her hospitality.

“People are happy that you just take the time to talk with them,” she said. “Sometimes if they let me, I’ll take their hand and comfort them.”

Golden said with about 5,000 hours, Stufkosky embodies volunteerism.

“Nan has such a gift with people,” she said.

But to Stufkosky it’s all relative.

“I cared for a big family,” she said. “It gives me what I need in life, which is nurturing people.”

Other volunteers are trained in specialty areas such as comfort care and healing touch, which involve giving gentle hand massages to reduce anxiety and increase relaxation as well as energy therapy that benefits patients with anxiety and pain.

There are also volunteers who distribute art, craft and book materials and assist with the creation of projects as well as a knit/crochet group.

Sharp Chula Vista volunteers have a diverse range of skills and experience.

“Sometimes I just sit down in patients’ rooms and talk with them if they have no company,” he said. “It makes me happy knowing I’m making their stay better.”

He’s been a volunteer since December and puts in about six hours a week.

“I started volunteering because I realized that I want to give back to the community,” Pallera said. “I think the bigger picture is volunteering because you want to and not just because you’re going to school.”

Pallera attends Grossmont Community College and is majoring in business administration management.

“One of the biggest things I’ve done since I started volunteering is attend a meeting for strategic planning for Sharp,” he said. “Maybe five or 10 years down the road I see myself figuring out how we at Sharp can improve and bring the best customer satisfaction to the patients.”